Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Bring on the Chicks!

Starting on Saturday, June 24th, and ending on Monday June 26, eight chicks were born here at Razzberry Corner!  Two mama hens sat on the eggs the entire 3 weeks and are very proud mamas, Betty and Charlotte.  This batch of eggs we tried to write on the egg which hen laid it, so we know who is the real mama.  I love to study genetics and find it very interesting to see which character traits are carried forward in babies.  They're still young so I can't detect any traits now, but I will be looking as they grow and age.

Anyway, without further delay, here are the pictures.  Charlotte is the blonde mama and Betty is the black mama.


Charlotte has 1 golden baby and 3 striped chicks.


Betty has 1 white chick, 1 golden, and 2 striped.  Sadly, we didn't get any more black chicks because Betty was broody which means she was not laying when we collected and saved the eggs. 


Charlotte is still sitting one one guinea egg.  Guinea eggs take a week longer to hatch than chicken eggs.  We don't even know if the guinea egg is viable, but we figured we'd try and see if it hatched.  It came from our adult guinea hen, who spends all her time in the company of our adult male guinea.  But I don't think Charlotte will sit much longer on the egg now that the chicks are hatched.  We have enough guinea keets already, but I thought it would be nice to have another darker guinea keet (all our keets are blue/white or white, while our adults are pearl gray and royal purple - both dark colors).  Possibly if another hen becomes broody in the next few days we'll give her the 1 guinea egg, although it has less than a week to go if it hatches.

7 comments:

AJ-OAKS said...

Betty is very pretty. Love her coloring. And those chicks! They are soooo cute. Didn't know guinea eggs took a week longer than chicken ones. Thanks. I learned something new today. :)

Nancy K. said...

What a fun chicken blog! I'll be back.

Robin said...

Wow you are busy over there. So how many chickens and guineas do you have now?

Country Girl said...

Now that I know who Betty is named after I will always think of the human Betty when I hear about her! Maybe you should look up an old photo of Betty C. and hang it on the chicken Betty's nest! LOL! - The chicks are adorable. What is your chicken (and Guinea Hens) count now?

Carla said...

Peeps are so wonderful! I love watching hens mother their chicks. They're so attentive and smart.

Leigh said...

They are so cute! What a pleasure to see baby chicks with a chicken mom. That's the way chicks ought to be raised.

Razzberry Corner said...

Cindy - I've been learning new things about chickens since I got them - will I ever know everything? I'll never be a chicken pro!

Nancy K - You are always welcome back! I don't always write about chickens, sometimes about other happenings on the farm. But the chickens seem to be in my thoughts and therefore in my blog alot! Do you have chickens? I tried to look at you blog, but couldn't.

Robin - They are so cute, but there will be no more babies. Sorry, broody girls, I said NO MORE! We always have several broody pullets, I don't know why, and the new babies have excited the former 2 pullets who had babies, Zoner & Bella, to become broody again! Zoner tried to steal Betty's babies, Zoner's just crazy for more babies. Bella just started sitting and wont get up till a chick materializes under her. Silly birds.

Barb - Good ole Betty, I wish Mom still had friends like her.

CeeCee - I love watching the mother hens and chicks, too. Our mama hens are so sweet to us, the babies are going to grow up being very friendly. I put my hand down with treats for them, and the mama hen teaches them to eat out of my hand, and to sit on my hand. They are just so tiny and puffy still, too cute.

Leigh - I agree, that's the way they should be raised! It certainly is easier to have a hen do all the work for us!

~Lynn